The Boss (hint: not Bruce Springsteen)

The Boss (hint: not Bruce Springsteen) was Originally Posted on July 26, 2010 by lavarock

CBS has a TV show called “Undercover Boss” where the owner or CEO of a large company goes undercover in his own company to see how it really works. Oftentimes they find that processes they put into place are not working well because they have never worked in the field, or interviewed the people who will use the processes.

In some cases they find people who need to be retrained. That was obvious at one Hooters Restaurant when the incogneto owner saw the local manager treat some of the female employees in a very inappropriate way.

In other cases, such as this weeks Rotor Rooter episode, the CEO admits that he thought he would learn all about the people he employes. However, he really learned a lot about himself, in a very touching episode.

When I worked for a big company, it was rare to meet them but most of us knew the looks of our owners and Board Members. Of course, most people back in Silicon Valley knew “Bill and Dave”. There was an time when that was not the case. I don’t remember which, but either Hewlett or Packard (I think Bill Hewlett) was taking a tour through a manufacturing plant when he stepped over a yellow tape on the floor and picked up a printed circuit board to look at it. The engineer hollered “Hey put that down” and the tour guide said “Do you know who this is?”. The co-owner said “No, he is absolutely correct. I should not have picked it up because I may have damaged it with static electricity”. The engineer was concerned because he is responsible for the testing and his test stamp goes on the equipment.

I once was working on a piece of radio equipment and happened to look to to see a somewhat familiar face behind me. It was Barry Goldwater the US Senator, whose equipment I was working on.

However I did have one other time I was surprised. I was working at a restaurant along the Garden State Parkway as a dishwasher. We had one of those big steamy boxes with a conveyor belt. You put the dishes and glasses in cases which are pulled through the machine where they are sprayed with scalding water and then blown dry. They come out the other end hot and mostly dry. Although supplied with rubber gloves, I often did not use them. We would have vendors come through the kitchen and on one ocassion we had a bus load of people hered through to use the employee restrooms.

So I was not all that surprised when a stranger came up to where I was loading and unloading the dishwasher. He asked a couple of question, one being “Don’t they give you gloves for that?” I explained that sometimes I used them, however they made the plates very slippery and we broke more using gloves then we did using our bare hands. I told him I was OK with doing it this way. He then asked me if I was paid well for the job and I kinda hemmed and hawed and admitted “not really”, which was true.

A while later I was called into the manager’s office. I then began putting 2 and 2 together that I should have kept my mouth shut as this was probably the Health Inspector and I may get fired. My boss asked me if I knew who I was talking to and I said no. I was then told it was the Regional Manager and that he had been watching me for a while. He was impressed that I was working hard and was more concerned about the company product than my hands. I was told that he had instructed my boss to get better gloves and to give me and others doing my job a raise.

So, in retrospect, you should be careful what you say to people at the offie as they may be someone you don’t expect.